A wonderful step by step guide brought to you by Terra. Please check out more of her work in the links above. Enjoy!

Rough Draft

I sket﻿﻿﻿ch a rough draft in Paint Tool Sai using the pencil tool with the “Mio 1” effect.

Lineart

Use the “Brush” tool to make an outline of the drawing. Use browns instead of the blacks.

Flats

Make separate layers for the different parts of character. Example: Skin, Hair, Clothes. Use the “Magic Wand” tool to select different parts of the drawing. Then use the “Fill” tool to fill in the colors.

Basic Shading

Create new layers above the specified layers and use the “Clipping Group” to attach the layers. Use the “Multiply” layer to apply the first layer of shading. Start by shading the darkest areas like corners and where things overlap. Use the multiply layer effect to shade the clothes. It’s better to use blues or purples to shade.

Soft Shading

For soft-shading, I start by using the erasure tool to “lift-out” of dark areas. Then I use the “Water” brush tool to smooth out the shading. I also use the “Oil- Water” brush tool to add softer shadows.

Lighting

Use the “Luminosity” layer effect to add lighting to the character. Use light yellows and lower the opacity of the layer.

Finishing Touches

Make a new layer above the lineart layer and clip to that layer. Then change the color of the lineart. I used Clip Studio Paint’s effect brushes to add details to the outfit.

Background

In Clip Studio Paint, I use the gradient tool to create a simple gradient background. Then I use the flower effect brush to add on to the background. Try not to put too much into the background so it doesn’t distract from the character.